CHAPTER 1

INTO THE BREACH

“Get over there,” Ajax raged at the cowering Elemental Mage beside him. Both men had their backs against the side of an abandoned hovel, the sun in their eyes. “We won’t get paid until that rogue Steampunk is dead.”

The mage shook his head vigorously. “But listen to him. He means business.”

The Steampunk’s violent threats and nasty insults drifted over to them. “And then I’m gonna rip out ya guts and wear them as a necklace.”

“You see! No way am I going out there.” The mage crossed his arms.

Ajax rolled his eyes. “Fine, then I’ll go and reap all the rewards when we hand in the quest.” He quickly brought to mind his character panel, which showed a 3D model of his character and his stats.

Ajax Stoneheart

Race: Human

Class: Spiritual Warrior

Skill Focus: Warrior Paladin

Level: 2

Player Kills: 0

Might: 4 (1 Might increases AP by 5)

Dexterity: 1

Intellect: 2

Spirit: 3 (1 Spirit increases healing by 10% and improves mana regeneration by 2%)

Luck: 1

HP:  184 (BASE: 175 + 9 from BLS)

MP:  130 (BASE: 120 + 10 from equipment)

AP:  110 (BASE: 105 + 5 from weapon)

DEF: 50  (BASE: 20 + 30 from equipment)

XP: 600/1000

Active abilities

Blessing of the Lost Sun (BLS): Increases party health by 5%

Aura of Sunlight (AOS): Regen health by 5hp every minute (on top of auto regen)

Available Abilities

Base weapon attack +5 damage

Level 1 Lesser Heal (heals 5-15hp, cost 10mp)

Touch of Light (heal full HP instantly once per day, cost 50mp)

Awaken (a one-use-per-lifetime resurrection of another character, NPC or player, cost 0mp)

Next, he glanced over his equipment panel, even though he knew full well how pitiful it was and that it would be woefully inadequate if he faced the Steampunk alone. But I’m a glutton for punishment. I’ll look at my stuff and weep.

And weep he did…

Equipment

Standard Sword

Standard Shield

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Standard Chainmail

Standard Leather Boots

Standard Iron Helmet

Army-Issued Trinket +10mp (worn around neck)

Backpack

2x bread

1x bean curd (tofu)

2x vegetarian sausages (Why you no eat meat?)

water

6 x copper ingot

5 x iron ingot

iron pickaxe

whetstone

broken pineapple

Coin Purse

18 silver coins

Standard this and standard that, and a broken pineapple too! The Steampunk fired another volley of shots toward them from his blunderbuss. If I go out there alone, I’ll face standard death, and I’m on my second out of three lives! Two more deaths and Ajax would be stuck in the limbo of his own brain. No vast world to explore, no human contact, just an eternity of blackness as he waited out the centuries for the Advanced Hyper Neural Net Array (the computer arrays controlling this digital world) to awaken him from his frozen exile deep under the devastated surface of the earth.

He could think of no worse a fate. The world of Visaria is life. And life is Visaria. Or something like that.

Ajax elbowed the mage beside him. “I have a plan.”

“I’m all ears.” The mage gnawed on his fingernails, wincing at every shot that flew over their heads.

“Alright, now listen. I want you—”

“Not me.” The mage was already shaking his head.

Gritting his teeth, Ajax fought the desire to pick the other man up and throw him out in the open. Why group with me and take this quest if you’re going to be such a coward? He took a deep breath to calm himself. “Listen. I’ll go out and race around the corner and try to reach the side of the next building. When I get there, you summon your flame elemental and have it create a distraction while you run over to me. If you take damage, I’ll heal you.”

The mage could only summon the short-lived elemental once per hour, and though it would be better to save it for a more decisive moment, Ajax knew the mage wouldn’t come out of hiding unless he knew the odds were in his favor. “Alright.” The mage licked his lips. “I can do that.”

“Good. Now after three, I’m going to run for it.”

“Good luck.”

Ajax grimaced. He only had 1 point in Luck. On his one and only level-up, he had spent the stat point on increasing his Might. His plan was to focus on the Paladin talent tree of his Spiritual Warrior class, a tree focused more on healing than damage, but still capable in a fight. His end goal, like most young Sinjharians, was to join the Imperial Army. Most joined as Martial Warriors, a class focused on damage and tanking, but the army was always short of healers, and so he had rolled a healer for his second life. The Imperium’s enemy, the Republic of Dern, had access to Spirit Mages, the best healers in all Visaria. Ajax liked the idea of doing his part for his people by playing support and healing the Martial Warriors fighting on the front line.

And yet, here I am having to charge the enemy in a highly defensible position with only the support of a twig of a mage!

Saying a quick prayer to the One God for protection, he counted down to three, then raced from cover, shield up, waiting for the inevitable pain. He was halfway toward the ruined building when musket balls and crossbow bolts started flying past him. The fluro-green-haired Steampunk stood just inside a doorway, screaming gibberish threats as he unleashed his blunderbuss at Ajax. Just in front of the Steampunk stood his waist-high summoned crossbow turret that fired bolt after bolt.

Ajax grimaced as the missiles struck his shield. Some glanced off, and others probably became embedded in the metal. The noise was deafening. He was almost to cover when several rounds struck him in the leg, and one in the side. He screamed in agony, staggering on, watching the life bar in the side of his field of view rapidly shrink.

Critical hit -35hp (Sniper Shot)

-15hp

-24hp

-18hp

But then he was behind cover, and the worst of it was over.

Or so he thought. He was down to 92hp, and one of the rounds had caused extensive bleeding (and excruciating pain!).

-2hp

-1hp

If he waited any longer, his life force would deplete to 0 and his second life would be over. His memories erased, his experience—his very existence—gone forever. He would only retain the base knowledge of the digital world and its factions, along with his memories of his life before the apocalyptic war that had driven humanity under the earth and into the online world of Visaria.

Ajax started casting his healing spell, and while it was on its one-second cooldown between casts, he listened for any sound of the Steampunk charging forward to finish him off. The musket balls ricocheted off the side of the building, crossbow bolts thunked against it and vile curses continued to spew out of the player Steampunk’s foul mouth. “I’m gonna bite off your nose and rip out your lungs with a claw hammer. Then I’m gonna eat them!”

But the enemy seemed content in holding his position within the building he had fortified. Damn Steampunks, Ajax snarled to himself as the healing energy filled him. They always seem to go mad.

When he had recovered his hit points, the bleeding had slowed to a point where he would lose the occasional point to blood loss, but it would not be life threatening, as his health regeneration (2% per minute) almost nullified the effects. He would bandage himself later and go to the hospital to permanently repair the bullet and bolt wounds. And deal with the damage to my equipment! He was a novice in the profession of blacksmithing after all.

HP: 184/184

MP: 30/130

“Bloody hell,” was all he could say to that.

Now that Ajax had (mostly) recovered, and his mana had slowly begun to regenerate, he leaned to the side so he could see if the mage had summoned his elemental yet. He blinked. The mage wasn’t there. “What the? You fu—”

Suddenly, the wall he had hunkered down beside collapsed into rubble, some hitting him on his helmet. He covered his head to protect it from the worst of the carnage.

-16hp

When it was over, he opened one eye and found nothing to hide behind but one last remaining chunk of wall. Catching a glimpse of the gleeful Steampunk training his weapon on him, Ajax gulped and ducked back down.

This wasn’t going to be pretty.